Scott Kolins

Scott Kolins is an American illustrator, writer, and creator of multiple different superhero and science fiction comic books. His main credits are as a penciler but he is an established inker as well as colorist and has some credits as a writer.

Kolins’ interest in drawing and comics began at age 10 as an avid comic book reader in the late 1970s. He studied at The Joe Kubert School in Dover, New Jersey for two years, beginning in 1991.

Kolins cites Barry Windsor-Smith, Michael Golden, Jack Kirby, Mike Mignola, and Frank Miller as influences. “These five are the core artists who teach me something almost every day when I look at their work and ‘listen’ to their ‘storytelling voices’. They each have a pronounced style of conveying a story. Something about how they do it works for me and informs me on how I want to do it.” The day Jack Kirby died, he took his (namesake) dog for a walk because, “It felt like something huge had ended.”[3] Other artists Kolins names as influences include Frank Frazetta, Bill Watterson, Alphonse Mucha, Patrick Nagel, Bev Doolittle, J.W. Waterhouse and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

Most of Kolins’ credits are as penciller, following the modern tradition of “tight penciling.” Since his work on The Flash, he has a tendency to do fewer shadows and less varying of line-weight. This results, in part, in shifting some of the responsibility of the page content from the penciller to the inker or colorist (fewer lines and definition by line and more by color contrasts.) This tends to make the art very “clean.” The whole pattern of emphasis has been the subject of discussion.

In addition to his penciling and inking work, Kolins has studied comic book coloring. Each comic book has its own particular qualities and Kolins seeks some nuanced approach in his art to each comic book. He has worked over two dozen different titles, and sometimes does variation according to the demands of the story and the history of the character.

Scott Kolins was a 2003 nominee of the Wizard Fan Awards ‘Favorite Breakout Talent’ for his work on The Flash and rave reviews from fans.